unrecyclable packaging

Last week I sprained my knee quite badly, so I didn’t put up much of a fuss when the doc prescribed me some anti-inflammatories.

Although I certainly didn’t expect a full-on worm visitor centre, I’ve just phoned up Wiggly Wigglers and discovered that they have a full farm shop, plus farm garden where all their equipment is on show and in use.   Well that’s got me out of the job of making that wormery, at least!

Another product we’ve found is the Dog poo wormery.  (www.noonbright.earthessentials.co.uk)  Apparently it gives off no smells and transforms dog-poo into garden-friendly product.  This is recycling at its best, as Corky our dog is already eating the majority of our food waste.

Corky the dog

One of the big issues with waste management is storage.  It’s brilliant that my local Council collects a vast array of items, including: food & drink cans, aerosol cans, tin foil, plastic bottles, paper, telephone directories, magazines & newspapers, clothes & textiles.   However, with all this brilliance, comes another issue – space.  Simply storing these recyclables can be a headache, but when we’ve got to include everything else, including wood, old toys (for the charity shop) and just the general none-compostable household waste, it’s quite tough.

It seems that every corner I turn there’s a recycling bin of one sort or another.  We’ve tried to secrete them away, but let’s face it they don’t blend in with every surrounding.   I’m keen to ensure we do have an adequate number of recycling bins too.   I feel like I’ve brought my work home with me as I give everyone details about “waste segregation at source”.  

The Waste Efficiency team at Nisbets

I know it’s a corporate press release but I thought it might be of interest to anyone on the business side if they are trying to hit zero.

Heading for zero landfill … in 5 months.

Avonmouth company, Nisbets plc, aims for zero landfill by end of this year (2008).

Zero-landfill is the latest eco-initiative to be coveted by companies that are serious about the environment.  However, whilst most companies are giving themselves a number of years to achieve this noble aim, one (Avonmouth) company, Nisbets, the catering equipment giants, is going all out for zero landfill by the end of this year!

Nisbets went public with their zero-landfill by end ‘08 pledge just weeks after Marks and Spencers released their plan (zero-landfill by 2012) to the public.

But although the public launch at Nisbets may be recent, work on reducing waste has been ongoing for the past two years with the appointment of national waste consultants, Waste Efficiency Ltd.  The next step – Zero Landfill was the brainchild of Nisbets’ MD, Paul McMahon.  “It was evident that our workforce embraced the environmental work we were doing, and zero-landfill is a target that everyone can get involved in.”

However, two men got rather more involved than most: Jerry Beeston, Nisbets’ Facilities Manager and in-house Waste Efficiency consultant, Chris Wren, admit to spending a lot of time going through bins.  “To truly analyse waste, there’s no escaping the fact you have to get your hands dirty.  We’ve had to look at every bin, in every part of the building.  From banana skins to print cartridges, we had to know precisely what we were throwing away.

Once the waste was analysed, the two-man zero-landfill team embarked on a tireless campaign to inform their colleagues and install alternatives to bins.   “Sometimes this meant that employees have a number of different bins and recycling units to hand.  Segregating waste is essential for recycling.”

Nisbets launched in 1983 to supply catering colleges with knives, clothing and text books.   The company has grown substantially since then and now has a turnover of £104 million and employs 636 people in the UK alone, with seven outlets through Europe.

A company of this size generates considerable waste, mainly from packaging, as products arrive in their distribution warehouse from across the globe.  

Jerry and Chris looked outside of their own organisation too.  “To drive down waste output, we had to crack down on waste input. Quite simply, too many suppliers were using too much packaging.”  Nisbets is a major buyer of catering equipment, and the company is fortunate in having the muscle to drive through the changes it wanted: “We had to get quite brutal in some cases, and tell suppliers “either change or you won’t get our future business”.   Now we can see the knock-on effect of our actions.  These suppliers have reduced their packaging across the board.  It really can only help on a global basis.” Jerry continued.
The Nisbets bid is supported throughout the company.  From canteen and shop floor to boardroom, no-where can you forget that the company is determined to reach its zero-landfill goal.  Posters haunt every notice board, and an impressive collection of bins and recycling receptacles are ever-present.  The company is also determined to buy recycled products too, even the picnic benches and tables in the grounds are made from recycled plastic cups.

Work has been intensive to reduce landfill, and each month Nisbets get closer to their target.  In March 08, the company reported that 92.6% of their waste is being recycled, reduced and re-used. 

Whether or not Nisbets will be the first UK company to go genuinely zero-landfill, is unknown.  Certainly there are a number of companies keen to give zero-landfill targets of several years hence, but Nisbets have one key proviso to their bid.  “No cheating” said Jerry.  “Too many companies are taking the faster and easier option of incinerating waste but that’s not going to happen here.  No incinerating, and no landfill.  Those are our goals.”

So what does the future hold for Nisbets?  What will they do once they hit zero landfill?  MD Paul McMahon has built an environmental team in Nisbets and he is keen to investigate other environmental initiatives for the company.  As a pragmatist he may be pacing the company one step at a time, but with the 2008 self-imposed deadline, these are quick steps – not slow.  “Once we are maintaining zero-landfill we will turn our attention to other areas like energy use, carbon footprints and raw materials use. We want to focus on one area at a time and get it 100% right.”

Peter Clutterbuck, Operations Director of Waste Efficiency, the national waste management company said; “It’s a real pleasure to work with Nisbets.  They are firmly committed to zero landfill, and because they are a key player in the catering supplies industry, their actions will help others to follow.  Their purchasing might is certainly ensuring that many manufacturers here and abroad are taking packaging more seriously and cutting back dramatically.  It’s all good news.”

The main types of waste from Nisbets’ and how it’s being dealt with:

Cardboard from packaging
Baled up in on-site balers and sent for recycling

Polythene – mainly from packaging, shrink wrap from pallets.
Condensed and packaged up into manageable bales and sent for recycling

Wooden pallets from deliveries
Re-used if intact.  If broken, on-site repairs so that they can be re-used

Broken or chipped ceramics
Crushed and sent to produce hard-core for road laying

Why go zero to landfill?

For centuries, humans have extracted raw materials from the Earth, processed them and then deposited waste products into landfill sites.   However, not only are natural resources and raw materials starting to be depleted, but landfill sites are swiftly being filled, to the detriment of the environment.  

As waste breaks down in landfill it emits methane, a greenhouse gas with 23 times the warming power of CO2.
Pollutants from landfill are among the most frequently recorded contaminants of groundwater in the UK.

It makes sense, therefore, to recycle and re-use, thus minimising the use of raw materials, and reducing the negative effects of landfill.

Recycling means we can protect natural resources.  For example, in just three months, Nisbets recycled 120 tons of cardboard, which means that 2040 trees have been saved and 240 cubic metres of landfill have been saved.

The approach

Nisbets have enlisted the help of waste specialists, Waste Efficiency Ltd.   Together, they have produced a 14-point action plan that will take the company to zero landfill by the end of 2008.

The plan includes total staff involvement, led from the top, with the MD, Paul McMahon, giving full support and commitment to the project.

Nisbets installed a full-time on-site Waste Efficiency professional into their site, to assess and deal with waste on an ongoing basis.

It also instigated a comprehensive training and awareness plan throughout the plant, ensuring that all staff are onboard and enthusiastic about the company’s goals.

From a technical perspective, after waste was analysed, a strategy was designed and tested to deal with each segregated waste sector.  The strategy took into account collections, vehicle access, storage suitability, and the environmental impact of waste collection.

Ongoing monitoring of the waste treatment means that the company is comfortable about reaching its zero landfill target.

Waste Efficiency

Until 2004, Nisbets was handling all of its waste management in-house.   As the company grew, Jerry Beeston, Nisbets’ Facilities Manager, decided to outsource the organisation’s waste requirements.

“We were coping adequately with our waste needs, but we knew that to deal with impending legislation, and to meet our internal commitments to the environment, we would need external specialist help. 

“Waste Efficiency provided a truthful and upfront appraisal of our situation.  They were keen to work in partnership with us, and overall their work has saved us time and money as they identify better and more efficient routes to dispose of waste.

“We welcomed Chris Wren, Waste Efficiency’s in-house consultant some six months ago.  He fitted straight in, providing practical and technical support, with a full understanding of our needs that can only be gained by working onsite full time.

“Waste Efficiency has proved itself to be an excellent partner.  I particularly appreciate their candid reporting and their deep expertise in the waste industry.  I am confident that zero landfill by 2008 would have been near impossible without them.”

Fatty and Chicken

So now we’ve got the family behind the scheme, this week’s focus is on food waste.

As part of my move to zero landfill I am going to need a means of disposing of food waste. Some will find its way into our chickens and dog, all of which are happy to oblige but not everything is suitable for this disposal route. Obviously we cannot feed the chickens any meat products, and the dog’s digestive system may be robust, but it’s not a free-for-all.

One obvious approach is to get a wormery, this opens up a whole new world. There are a bewildering number on the market each claiming to either be the ‘original’ wormery or to have some unique feature that promises to deliver a better level of composting than the competition. Many sell worms for what appear to be stunningly high prices and make claims for the composting efficiency of certain breeds whether it be reds, dendrobaenas or tigers!

I am beginning to wonder what exactly is it that makes a wooden box or plastic bin with a lid a wormery? Could I find some wood (bound to have some lying around) and make my own?

The going rate for a wormery appears to be in the range of £50 to £100 but with some upmarket models going up to £150.00 so going down the route of buying one is not going to be cheap.

I think some more research is going to be needed before I can make a decision!  I’d be interested if anyone has info on wormeries, or can recommend a particular sort.

The result of this has been that this week we put out one black bag of waste for the bin man instead of the usual four!

We are also reaping the results of firing our children up with enthusiasm for the project. Comments such as ‘I hope you are going to recycle that’ and ‘why did you buy those apples in a polythene bag instead of loose with no packaging’ are becoming more and more frequent. Interestingly these comments don’t seem to extend to the packaging around biscuits and ice cream!

Susan is currently pouring over catalogues of bins and caddies to ensure we are fully equipped with enough containers to capture all of the various waste streams we will be collecting. I hope when they are delivered they don’t come in any awkward packaging!  I guess we can always use the biscuit tin too.

But until this happens, we’ve got a far more pressing issue involving a different sort of hole.  Landfill.   The human race is gouging out thousands of acres of land, and filling it with trash – rendering it useless for agriculture, building or recreation.  Plots of oozing mess, secreting methane gas and noxious cocktails of chemicals, are dotted all over the country.  Possibly you have one close to where you live?   And the government knows that this just cannot carry on – land is going to run out.  There is always talk about new waste taxes, weighing bins, etc.

The purpose of my blog is to keep me on track with my plan – to personally go to zero-landfill for our household.

I do have a bit of a head start as I’m also the MD of a waste disposal company, but that could work either way.  Yes I do have a lot of knowledge about waste, and I’m helping a number of clients to go zero-landfill, but also there is the temptation of taking the shortcuts I know.